Kate's Gifts

  The sting in her throat, the shudder, the goose bump chill, her mind didn’t have to remember, her body does and like satin sheets, it is arousing.

  One drink. That’s all it takes. It sets off a chemical reaction that triggers what some consider to be an allergy, that becomes an insatiable craving, that is practically impossible to stop.

  “You see, just like riding a bicycle, you never forget,” Elayna smiles.

  The wonderful warmth spreads over her, flowing through her, the winter morphing into spring as the liquid sunshine melts away the ice of her frozen being.

  “Don’t be ashamed. Everything happens for a reason, even this.” Katrina smiles, welcoming Kate to her new home in the attic with the rest of a life’s memories.

  “You’ll be back,” Kate says.

  “I know I will.”

  “What was that?” Elayna asks.

  “I said, how about another?” Kate smiles, holding out her cup.

  Katrina is free.

  Behind the wheel of the ungainly RV, Katrina has a nice little buzz going. They’re always nice in the beginning. In a very short time, she’ll be back to drinking not only the way she used to, but worse. Her disease will have progressed as if she’d never stopped. Although she has an edge on, her thinking remains clear. She had a plan to derail Stani, but now the situation is even worse. One of the bombs is primed, and Elayna knows it. She doesn’t need Kate to set it off. Somehow, she needs to get it out of her reach. She also has to consider the kids. Elayna could be bluffing, but she can’t take that risk. Katrina glances at Elayna, staring straight ahead, assured of her course. Maybe it’s the buzz, but a part of her wants to buy into the crazy plan. The thought of revenge against the pricks responsible for the mess is tempting. She would kill them herself if she could.

  “Stop it! You can’t go down that road, Katrina,” Kate tells her. “Is your act of revenge worth the lives of innocent people?”

  Katrina almost says “Shut up” out loud.

  “You’re no longer who you used to be either, Katrina. You’ve changed just as much as I have.”

  Despite all the planning, the camper needed gas, so she pulls off the interstate into the rest area, surprisingly busy for such an early hour. That’s just fine with Elayna, since they are less noticeable. Katrina stops short of the pumps and opens the door. “I have no idea what side the tank is on,” she says, answering Elayna’s concerned look. As she walks around the back, she sees Elayna checking her out in the side mirror.

  “Left side,” she says, getting back behind the wheel, then maneuvering the monster up to the pumps. “Do you want to do this, or should I?”

  Elayna tries hide her uneasiness about being separated, but Kate reads it on her anyway. “You go ahead. You seem to know what you’re doing,” Elayna responds.

  Kate pulls on her jacket and sets to work.

  “This is it Katrina. This is your last chance. You have to let them help you stop her. Otherwise, you’re going to have to kill her,” Kate warns.

  “Cash or credit?”

  At that moment, almost without thought, Katrina decides what to do. “Intuitively know how to handle situations that used to baffle us,” Katrina says to herself, quoting the Big Book.

  “Perhaps we’re not so different after all?” Kate goads.

  Katrina uses her own credit card. By now the FBI will be watching her account, and she knows it. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Elayna watching, just a shadow across the side mirror, unaware that Katrina just tipped off the cops where they are, though by the time they can do anything, they’ll be long gone. She knows the tip won’t be enough. As the pump continues to run, she walks over to the little min-mart and goes inside.

  She takes out Haddad’s cell phone and hits redial number while ducking into the men’s bathroom.

  Chapter 5

  Newscenter 7

  It didn’t take long to find Kate’s husband. A number of staff readily gave up his whereabouts- across the street in the hotel with his nearly universally reviled concubine Caroline. In fact, some took great relish in seeing him returned to the station in handcuffs.

  For hours now, McDowd has been grilling him on family history, trying to find something in the past that may provide a clue to what she might do in the future. His distain for Michael is palpable, but McDowd is determined to remain professional. He

  takes copious notes about stuff like how they met, family trips, friends, college careers.

  McDowd’s phone rings, and he sees that it’s Haddad’s number. “Shelly! Where are you, man? You okay?”

  “This is Katrina Primorsky. Listen carefully…”

  He goes pale as he walks out of the room. “Kate! It’s Dan McDowd! Where did you—”

  At this point Katrina is beyond her capacity to be surprised, though hearing Dan does make her hear skip a beat. “Shut up and listen, Dan. The FBI agent is alive, in the basement of a warehouse at 1313 2nd Street. The cross is Erie—”

  “Kate! Don’t run. Give yourself up,” McDowd pleads, gesturing to get Linda Carpenter to start a trace.

  “My kids are in danger, Dan. “

  “Where are they?”

  “Oak Lane apartments. They’re using them as leverage. I don’t have much time.”

  “We’ll get them. Kate. You’re gonna get killed,” he says, looking at Freaks, who reluctantly nods in agreement.

  “I wish. That would be the easy way out. Listen to me. I’m going back to Maryland. The balloon…”

  The line goes dead.

  “Kate? Kate!” It’s no use. She’s gone.

  “Still checking.” Linda Carpenter says.

  Freaks is already on the phone to Edwards, giving him the location of the warehouse.

  On his desk, Michael’s cell phone suddenly rings, making everyone jump. He seems afraid to answer it.

  “You’d better get that.” McDowd says.

  He grabs it, and McDowd leans in close to listen. “Hello?”

  “Dad, it’s Tom.”

  Michael smiles, his eyes quickly becoming glassy. “Thank God! Tom, where are you? Is Robbie with you? Is your mother with you?”

  “I’m with Robbie, we’re okay, but Mom left.”

  McDowd reaches out for the phone. Michael has heard all he needs to hear for now.

  “Hold on, Tom,” he says before handing it over.

  “Tom. It’s Dan McDowd. Where are you?” He listens and writes down the address, then hands it to Freaks, who holds up a finger to tell him to hang on.

  “Okay, listen carefully. An FBI agent named Linda Carpenter is going to come for you and Robbie. Stay put. Don’t answer the door for anyone else. I’m going to have you stay on the line with your dad until they get there. Okay?” McDowd tells him.

  Tom looks at the bag with the gun in it. “My mom gave me a gun, just in case, she said. She said to give it to you,” Tom says, looking a picture of Boo’s dad, standing next to McDowd.

  “Did your mom say where she was going?” McDowd asks.

  “She said she was going to try to stop a war.”

  Chapter 6

  Chesapeake House, I-95

 

  Watching Katrina walk inside, Elayna didn’t immediately freak out. She nearly bolts out of the camper with her gun in hand, but she instead places it on her seat. She scans the mini-mart and then rushes to the ladies’ room. One by one, she checks the stalls, her panic building with each empty one.

  “Fuck!”

  She rushes for the door. Opening it, she comes face to face with Katrina.

  “Hi there, looking for me?”

  “I was beginning to worry,” Elayna says cautiously.

  “You should. I went into the men’s room by accident! See what happens when I start drinking? I think you’d better drive now.” Elayna pushes Katrina against the wall,

  giving her a pat-down.

  Instead of resisting, she just laughs. “Whoa, what t
he fuck?”

  She takes the truck keys. “Don’t mind me, I’m just making sure you don’t do anything stupid.” Elayna then rushes into the men’s room, making a quick sweep of the place to see if Katrina had left anything behind.

  “Hey, lady, what are you doing?” a male voice calls from behind her. It is the gas station attendant.

  “I’m sorry,” she says, coming out. “My friend here has been drinking, and got a little confused. I’m just making sure she didn’t leave anything behind.”

  “Well, I hope she’s not driving,” the twenty something kid with bad skin says.

  Elayna holds up the keys with a sickeningly sweet smile. “I am, but thanks for your concern.”

  He looks at Katrina. “A little early, don’t you think?”

  Katrina shrugs, “Or late, or noon somewhere.”

  The smile fades the moment they turn away. God only knows how many times she’d used that excuse. The guilt has no power over her. The craving does, and all she wants is more. Once alcohol had come between her and the kids before, and it could again. At least she can recognize it. She’s done what she can to save them. Now all she can do is do the right thing and hope for the best.

  Once back in the RV, Elayna gets behind the wheel. She hesitates, looking back at the mini-mart. The kid is looking right at her. Katrina knows what she’s thinking. “Leave him, he’s just a kid.”

  “He can call the police.”

  “They’ll know it was us. There are cameras everywhere. We have a big head start. You kill him, you’ll cut that lead down,” Katrina tells her. “Plus, they’ll have an idea of our direction.”

  Elayna continues to weigh the option. She waves to the kid, who in turn waves back. She mumbles something about regret and then starts the truck. “You’ve gotten soft in your old age,” Elayna half jokingly tells Katrina.

  “Older but wiser,” she replies, lifting another short one.

  Elayna smiles, trying to conceal her disgust. “How can somebody so strong be so weak?”

  Chapter 7

  The Warehouse

  An assortment of plainclothes agents and SWAT team members sweep through the building, the beams of their flashlights crisscrossing. Eventually, they find the stairwell, and Haddad.

  “Geez, Shelly, you okay?” Edwards asks as soon he sees him, bloodied, sitting on the floor and chained to a pipe.

  “I walked into a door. Do you mind?” he replies sarcastically, holding up his handcuffed hand.

  Edwards lets him loose, then takes in their surroundings.

  “Wow! Look at all this shit.” Mayo laughs like a kid walking into a candy store as he checks out the variety of weapons lining the walls.

  An EMT comes in to start taking care of Haddad. “I’m all right,” he tells the woman.

  “Who’s this?” Mayo asks, gesturing to the body on the floor.

  “Gotta be the leader. He got the drop on me. There’s another stiff down the hall,” Haddad answers between winces, brought on by dabs of hydrogen peroxide.

  “Stanley the gardener. So who dropped him?” Edwards asks.

  “The GRU chick. She took the bombs and the other woman.”

  “That’s weird. Why didn’t she whack her too?” Mayo thinks aloud.

  “Don’t know, but I’m glad she didn’t. The GRU chick was going to kill me, but the other one stopped her,” Haddad tells them.

  “Kate Wilson. She tipped us off on where to find you,” Edwards adds.

  Jill Abrams and Kevin Lee, the NEST geeks, arrive. Their radiation detectors start chirping the moment they turn them on.

  “A little warm in here,” she says, going directly to the spot where the bombs had sat.

  “Nothing to get hot under the collar about, though,” Lee jokingly adds. “Just residual levels.”

  The crew has received their first confirmation that they are dealing with nuclear material. Jill starts typing into her smart phone a message to her boss that will echo around the world. “NUCFLASH-PINNACLE- RADIOLOGICAL CONFIRMATION OF FISSION DEVICE BY DOE/JTOT- ACTIVATE SEARCH RESPONSE TEAM- TARGET 1-95 CORRIDOR BETWEEN NEW YORK TO WASHINGTON.”

  “So this is for real,” Edwards breathes. He sends Bob a text message, BOMBS ARE REAL. This changes everything.

  “If Wilson is trying to help, then why is she playing along with Boradin?” Mayo wonders.

  “We’re assuming that the GRU woman is here to stop an attack,” Edwards throws out to the group. “Perhaps she’s here to make sure it happens.”

  “Or maybe she’s here to steal them,” Mayo adds.

  “Or maybe she has some kind of leverage. Either way, you detonate one just to prove you’ve got the real deal. A nuclear explosion can be a great diversion,” Haddad concludes.

  “Wilson must be in on it. A two-way split, instead of six ways,” Mayo figures.

  “Greed. Could it be that simple?” Haddad asks.

  “It usually is,” Edwards replies.

  “So where do we go from here?” Mayo asks.

  “How about to hell in a hand basket?” Haddad offers as an answer.

  Chapter 8

 

  Manchester, VT

  Dawn yawns over the Green Mountain valley. The majority of the residents are asleep, but they all heard the commotion the night before when the President arrived. The famed Equinox Hotel has been a favorite getaway for presidents since Abraham Lincoln, and although not a Vermonter by birth, the current president has made it one of his homes away from the White House.

  The stately buildings, lovingly restored, had all the fabulous amenities old money could want. With its proximity to the Battenkill River’s excellent trout fishing, a reasonable golf course and ski slopes in winter, it became a favorite year-round destination. At first, the locals were thrilled with their new guest, but the novelty wore off when the inconvenience set in. However, The President is considerate, so instead wreaking havoc on Rt. 7 during the day for his runs, he does his three miles early.

  Two agents run a few steps behind him, followed by a pair of black armored Chevy Suburbans gun cars while a UAV keeps an eye on things overhead, looking for heat signatures in the surrounding mountains and farmland. Although a big production, his little runs are one of the few escapes afforded the most powerful human being on the planet.

  As the parade quietly moves through the center of town, one of the agents suddenly sprints up to him. Mustang takes out one of his headphones.

  “What’s up, Nate?”

  “Pinnacle priority message via OPREP-3 from NCA.”

  One of the war wagons pulls alongside. He slows to a walk and then stops.

  “Shit,” An agent hops out and hands him his iPhone so he can read his text. All he needs to see is the word NUCFLASH. The truck takes off the moment it closes back up.

  They’re back at the hotel in five minutes. The agent in charge of his detail and Mark Simon, his sleepy Chief of Staff, greets Mustang with a towel and a bottle of water.

  “What’s going on?”

  The agent hands him the full message that lays out the situation.

  “Dr. Tillman is at his office, and he DNI and SecDef are being awakened.”

  They enter a small sitting room that opens onto a garden where a secure phone has been brought in.

  “I’ll talk to Tillman first.” He takes the phone. “Doc, you there?”

  “Morning Mr. President.” He brings his boss quickly up to speed. “As of now We have four suspects down, but we’re still hunting two and the weapons.”

  Mustang wipes his brow, still cooling down from the run.

  “Well, that ain’t very good, Doc. What’s the hold up here?”

  “The Russians held back critical information that would have helped us.”

  “Why would they do that?”

  “I guess they didn’t want to compromise their operation by risking us capturing one of them.”

  “Do we know the target?”

/>   “We can guess, but apparently they have flexibility in executing their orders.”

  A bright red male cardinal catches the President’s eye out in the garden, lighting on a birdbath. “What do you think, Doc?”

  Tillman hates being an odds maker, but he has to be honest to his boss. “It will be down to the buzzer, sir.”

  “That’s kinda close when we’re dealing with American lives.”

  “Sir, the Russian president is holding for you,” the Chief of Staff tells him.

  “What does this jackass wants?”

  “I suspect he wants to know what we’ll do when they miss the basket.”

  Chapter 9

  Newscenter 7

  When Michael Wilson sees his sons from across the large newsroom he runs to them. The group hugs, shedding the tears of joy and sorrow. Linda Carpenter walks right by them.

  “You won’t believe where they were, the home of one Sergeant James Washington,” she tells McDowd.

  “Weird shit is going on. You couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried,” McDowd comments.

  “It is a full moon,” Freaks reminds him.

  “And Halloween.”

  It’s a stretch for him to think that any good will come of this, thinking of Kate. He’s seen the stories of mothers abandoning their kids, even killing them. Could she really be that kind of woman? No, she left them in perhaps the safest place she could. He’s seen her with them. She left them behind for their sake.

  “The older boy gave me a thumbnail of what went down at the house,” Linda says.

  “Yeah?” McDowd snaps out of it.

  “The male perp came in, held the kids and waited or her to come home. She killed the guy.”

  “A mother protecting her young,” Freaks nod with approval.

  A new commotion occurs draws their attention across the room. Edwards, Haddad and Mayo walk in.

  “How many rounds did you go?” Freaks recoils at the painful sight. The swelling has gone down, but he’s still raw to look at.

  “Enough,” Haddad mumbles.

  “What were you thinking, Shelly?” Linda asks.

  “I wasn’t, but I got lucky. Wilson saved my life. The Boradin woman has been playing us all along. She must have some leverage on Kate.”

  McDowd looks at the Wilson boys. “Not anymore.”